The Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca is the first region in Mexico with a large-scale wind energy development. The region holds 60% of the country’s installed capacity, but the new infrastructure has faced opposition from sectors of the local population concerned about wind farms’ social and environmental impacts. The opposition and ensuing conflicts have been widely studied; some of these studies have framed wind energy as part of the recent cycle of land grabbing. Nevertheless, this literature has overlooked landholders’ acceptance of wind energy. This paper aims to address this gap and argues that the main driver of the land grabbing process is land rent. The paper draws on recent insights from political ecology that highlight that the commodification of nature is predicated on rent. The paper uses the notion of value grabbing to look at the social struggles over property rights in the Isthmus and the conflicts for the increase and distribution of rents from wind energy.

瓦哈卡州特万特佩克的地峡是墨西哥第一个大规模发展风能的地区。该地区拥有该国60％的装机容量，但是新基础设施遭到了当地居民的反对，他们担心风电场对社会和环境的影响。反对派和随之而来的冲突已得到广泛研究；这些研究中有一些将风能作为最近征地周期的一部分。然而，该文献忽略了土地所有者对风能的接受。本文旨在解决这一差距，并认为土地征用过程的主要驱动力是土地租金。本文借鉴了来自政治生态学的最新见解，这些见解突显了自然的商品化是以租金为基础的。